Tom Roper's Weblog

Facial jewellery

I forgot to mention that I now have a handbook from the agency employing me which enjoins me to keep facial jewellery to a minimum. I certainly shall, unlike those at the Modified Librarian, sadly not updated since 1999.

piercings

Job, patience of

I have a job, Interim Head of Learning Resources at South Thames College. So it is time to analyse my job search.

• I applied for nineteen jobs. I was shortlisted for four.
• The average salary of posts I applied for was £33,000.
• Eight posts were fixed-term contracts, of lengths varying form three months to two years.
• All but one were based in London
• By sector, I applied for six jobs in higher education, three at the British Library, two in government, two in further education and others in learned societies, local government, the private sector, a professional body, a special library and a trade union. In the past three years I have applied for seven BL jobs and have never been short-listed. Is this a record.
• Subjects inlcuded regional studies, medicine, fashion, art history, history, local government, scientnce technology and medicine (STM), music and animal health.
• All but three were library-based
• Four came from agencies, two each from Sue Hill and TFPL, with TFPL sending me for the South Thames job. I am sorry to say that CILIP's own Infomatch sent me precisely nothing.

Medium weight strategist

I shall post in more detail about my search for work when I've analysed progress so far. At the end of three weeks of unemployment, I still have no job.

I saw an advertisement for a 'medium-weight strategist'. I wonder if I could apply? I weigh around 75 kg (that's 165 pounds for my US readers).

Smart lad wanted

I spent a happy hour at the Job Centre today. They have touch-screen machines that perform job-searches, though they need some refinement. A search for vacancies in London and the south-east retrieved jobs in Cardiff and Dumfries.

One in London caught my eye. I quote:'...Are you seeking a career as an impartial political editor? We are looking for an energetic, intelligent and well spoken individual.....ability to write grammatically correct [sic] is important'.'

I couldn't agree more.

Cat in the fennel

It is hard to adjust to the different rhythms of the day when not working. One depends on so many things for structure: the stampede of students on the hour every hour running from lecture to lecture, the lunch break, or the time of the train home.

In this early spring I sit outside in the sun and the cat plays among the tall dead fennel stalks in the border. I must cut them down. I wear a quilted jacket, true, but am not in the least bit cold.

cat, gardening

Ave atque vale

Yesterday was a beautifully sunny early spring day on the campus of the University of Sussex, where I worked for the last time. Daffodils, crocuses, iris and snowdrops all flower at once. I can never decide which season suits Spence's campus best, in its natural hollow on the South Downs. Autumn, when I came, in October 2002 for an interview, is just as lovely. See TimBrighton's photographs on Flickr for something of the feel of it

Both days, yesterday and that interview, were Fridays and, as menu compilers are slaves to tradition, on both days I ate fish and chips and apple crumble for lunch, a timeless meal that would certainly have been served in my own student days over thirty years ago. Sussex would not have me then, though no university would, as I discovered later that my headmaster had described me in his reference as an 'intellectually arrogant Bolshevik'. I complained, got him to tone down his description of me, waited a year and applied again, but wound up at Kent instead.

The Human Resources department sent my a letter instructing me to ring payroll for my last salary and P45; payroll seemed to now nothing of this and said I would have to wait till the end of the month. HR also demanded the return of my identity card.

This is dispiriting stuff, but more than compensated for by the kindness of my former colleagues in the Sussex Language Institute. who marked my departure with a touching ceremony, drinks, a meal, a beautiful card, and a deluge of thoughtful presents.

Plain English vs. HR-speak

I asked for feedback from a recent job application. I was not short-listed and wanted to know why. They gave me three reasons. Numbers one and three were, in the main, not unreasonable. Number two read as follows:
'The panel felt that...you did not show evidence of....securing, managing and implementing significant and effective change processes to ensure the delivery of effective policies and plans to achieve demonstrable continuous improvement'.
Where to start? The meaningless vogue modifiers, such as 'significant' or 'effective', the latter used twice? What subtle differences are there between securing, managing and implementing change processes? In any case. what's the difference between change and change processes? What fantasy world do they live in, where improvement is always continuous?  The possibility of  demonstrable continuous improvement suggests that there could also be continuous improvement that is not demonstrable.  Why would you deliver a policy? What monster of a candidate did they find who could produce evidence of this stuff?